Caterham will move into the former Arrows factory

The Caterham team has decided to acquire a new factory in order to continue its development. The Malaysian team, previously based in Hingham, will move to Leafield by August 2012 to the former Arrows team factory – and also the Super Aguri team.

The Caterham F1 team and its GP2 team Caterham Racing announced today that they will relocate their operational base from the current site in Norfolk to a new location at Leafield in August 2012, stated the Caterham F1 team press release.

Tony Fernandes, the team principal, believes that the Hingham factory was a perfect first “home” to launch the team’s operations, which was still called Lotus Racing at the time. However, now with the growth of the team, which has become Caterham F1, the GP2 team, and with the acquisition of Caterham Cars, a move became necessary.

The Hingham factory has been our home since we entered the Formula 1 World Championship in September 2009, and it has served us very well, providing a perfect platform to set up both our F1 team and our GP2 team at the start of our development, explained Tony Fernandes in the statement.

«However, as both teams have grown, and with our planning process during the purchase of Caterham Cars and the development of the Caterham Group, it became clear that we needed to have the car manufacturer in the same location as our racing teams, to give us the best chance of achieving our future goals both on and off the track.»

«We started looking for a site that could be adapted to our future needs for road car operations and auto racing, and Leafield quickly became the obvious choice, » states Fernandes.

The move of the F1 team will only take place in August 2012 as time is needed to adapt the Leafield facilities to meet the needs of the entire Caterham group. The Hingham factory will remain within the Caterham fold and will become the headquarters of Caterham Composites.